Religious
leaders hate rival sources of authority. 18th Century European
Enlightenment thinking with its concepts of rationalism and science
provided religious authoritarianism with that rival. America’s founding
fathers, products of the Enlightenment, had the audacity to effectively
say to Christianity, "worship all you want, but our Constitution does not
need your influence!" Roman Catholic traditionalists and Protestant
Christian bible-based fundamentalists still seethe over this rejection.

Then as now, zealous Catholics and
Protestants claim to speak for God versus Enlightenment thinkers who
boldly experiment with new ideas independent of Christian dogma. Today's
clergy shudder if their members hear the Thomas Edisons of this world,
whose invention catapulted America to prosperity, exclaim as he did that,
"religion is all bunk!"

The June 22
International Herald Tribune carried an article by Peter Watson
entitled "The Price of Fundamentalism." It made highly pessimistic
observations about nations under the influence of religious fundamentalism
and America's present trends.

Religious fundamentalism in Israel, the
Roman Empire, China, and the Islamic world had very destructive results.
Israel BCE was consumed with religious zealotry and alienated itself from
its surrounding Greek and Roman civilizations. Israel's zeal for God got
its reward in 70 CE. The Romans annihilated Israel.

The Roman Empire's
unlikely demise came three centuries later. Edward Gibbon, author of
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, blames Rome's fall in part
on the ascendancy of Christianity.

Buddhist
fundamentalism in China resulted in centuries of chaos until the 9th
Century when the Song renaissance restored the Chinese civilization.

Islam's early
success was spectacular. It produced many intellectuals and scientists
until fundamentalism gained the upper hand in the late 11th Century
leading to a millennium of backwardness, which still afflicts the Islamic
world.

Christian
fundamentalism has gained political ascendancy in America. Under President
Bush, science takes a back seat to his right wing religious ideologues. In
August 2003, the Government Reform Committee in the U.S. House of
Representatives assessed the treatment of science and scientists by the
Bush Administration. The report, "Politics and Science in the Bush
Administration" found many instances where the Administration manipulated
the scientific process and distorted or suppressed scientific findings.

Former President
George H.W. Bush a decade earlier stated, "Now more than ever, on issues
ranging from climate change to AIDS research . . . government relies on
the impartial perspective of science for guidance." The current Bush
Administration has skewed this impartial perspective, generating
unprecedented criticism from the scientific community and prominent
Republicans who once led federal agencies.

In February the
New Scientist reported a survey in which fully half the scientists
working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they had been pushed
to change or withdraw scientific findings for political reasons.

Fundamentalism's
anti-science attitude pervades society. The science journal Physical
Review reported in May 2004 that scientific papers published by west
European authors exceeded those by U.S. authors in 2003. In 1983, there
were three American authors for every one west European.

The percentage of
patents granted to American scientists has been falling since 1980, from
60.2 percent of the world's total to 51.8 percent.

In 1989, America
trained the same number of science and engineering PhDs as Britain,
Germany and France combined. In 2004, the United States is five percent
behind. European scientists now outnumber American scientists in
citations awarded.

America is behind in
cloning and stem cell research, now led by South Korean, Italian and
British scientists. American fundamentalists seek to outlaw stem cell
research on the arbitrary and totally unproven premise that "life begins
at conception," a recent concept contrary to the teaching of St. Augustine
and the allegedly infallible Roman papacy for some 1,500 years.

Fundamentalists use
religious pretexts against scientific and cultural objections. A religious
sounding "bumper sticker"-like rationality is usually sufficient to corral
the pliant followers. Fundamentalism's dictates on issues are arbitrary
and cleverly manipulated to appeal to the emotions of voters. Whether the
issue is evolution, gay marriage, stem cell research, abortion, euthanasia
or the environment, the strategy is the same.

President Bush's
recent endorsement of teaching "Intelligent Design" perpetuates this same
denial of science. ID proponents have never had an article on ID published
in any peer-reviewed scientific journal. They do not conduct experiments
that would prove or falsify their hypothesis. Their religious conjecture
under the guise of science makes no useful predictions, nor can they model
it mathematically. There are no research labs doing ID science because
"Intelligent design" is not science, it is religion!

"Those who cannot learn from history are
doomed to repeat it" is a profound quote by philosopher George Santayana.
We used to be fearful that Communism might bring America down. History and
current trends show the fruit of Christian fundamentalism. It is a far
more insidious enemy seducing its gullible adherents with idle threats and
false promises. Religious fundamentalists' objectives have never changed;
they seek vindication for their rejection and want America's obeisance.
Under George Bush, it looks like history is repeating itself. They will
gladly lead our nation down fundamentalism's proven path of destruction,
all in the name of their God!